Anti-fogging agent.

[Mike Kennedy]

Think I might of misposted my inquiry earlier this morning so I shall ask again. If you get a slight bit of fogging when you develop your paper is there a "brand name" chemical to use?
My search of the form pages mentioned KBr or Benzotiazole but the local photoshop manager had never heard of them.

Mike

Mental note: Always have 2 cups of coffee in the AM before posting.

 

[htmlguru4242]

I'm not aware of any "brand name" anti-fog agents. The Potassium Bromide (KBr)and Benzotriazole should be readily obtainable from a photo supplier. In the US, B&H sells both, and they're relatively inexpensive.

 

[ann]

try calumet. they carry the Zone VI brand of supplies and at one time they produced a commerical Benzotriazole.

 

[Lee Shively]

Edwal Orthazite? (My spelling is probably wrong.)

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Edwal Liquid Orthazite is a solution of benzotraizole (3% if I'm not mistaken) and sodium sulfite.

You can order benzotriazole and KBr from artcraftchemicals.com, photoformulary.com, and a few other places.

 

[Gerald Koch]

At one time Ilford sold a 1% solution of benzotriazole as Ilford IBT Restrainer.

 

[Gerald Koch]

My search of the form pages mentioned KBr or Benzotiazole but the local photoshop manager had never heard of them.

A sad commentary on the state of photography when even store managers are ignorant of anything analoq.

 

[Mike Kennedy]

You hit the nail on the head with that one Gerald.
Now if the "assistant" manager was in today I am sure he could have steered me in the right direction. He is truly a man of the old school who showed me the back of the building before it was renovated 2 years ago.
They once employed 4 full time darkroom staff. The drying racks,ventilation system, adjustable printing tables were custom made by the staff to suite their needs. It was like walking into a place frozen in time. He offered me the last remaining enlarger (federal??) which was a monster.I have never seen anything so large.
Not having the room for such a beast I politely declined. "Guess it will be headed for the dump" was his reply. Hell no,there must be a way of saving this relic from a bygone ere. After many phone calls we found it a new home.

One small step for analog

 

[gordrob]

Hi Mike

I have been looking for the same thing but with no luck. I have got a small bottle of Kodak Anti Fog #2 in tablet form but it is almost impossible to find now - mostly because staff in most photographic stores have no idea what you are talking about since they have not done any serious darkroom work.

Attached is an EBAY for the chemical - 1/2 pound is way to much for me but I thought I would point you at it since it is in your part of the world.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Benzotriazole-B...562974301QQcategoryZ29983QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Gord

 

[Mike Kennedy]

Thanks Gord,
I just sent the chap an email asking how much the shipping charges would be.
Mike

If you need the right answer, go to the source..........APUG

 

[reggie]

Edwal Liquid Orthazite and Edwal Anti-Fog in 4oz bottles are both benzotriazole. Orthazite is 3% benzotriazole and is sold in 32oz jars for a pretty reasonable price (about $20). I have found the Anti-Fog to be priced way too high, over $14 at a local store. This stuff is used so sparingly that a 32oz bottle would last quite a while. They are the brand-name chemicals that you are looking for. The other brand that I used to use from Zone VI is no longer made.

Here is a link for Edwal Liquid Orthazite:

www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller...695&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation

From the B&H site, here is their description of the product:
"By adding ready-to-use Edwal Liquid Orthazite directly to paper developers, chemical fog is easily eliminated.
Such fog is usually caused by the use of out-dated film or paper, by developing prints at too high a temperature or by touching the emulsion surface during development.
Edwal Liquid Orthazite will also increase the fineness of grain for Borax-type semi-fine grain developers, and will obtain true black and blue-black tones on papers which tend to give an image with a green cast."

Note the effect on print tone - sounds like it would make Ilford Gallery a cold tone paper right out of the developer.

The powdered benzotriazole can be hard to disolve, there is a thread on APUG on this topic. I tried dissolving it in isopropyl alchohol and it worked like a charm. Just dissolve in this and add to water.
If you try dissolving in water, it should be distilled or de-ionized water at least 125 deg. F.

Photographer's Forumlary is selling some that looks like cotton and they say it disolves very well in hot water. I ordered some but have not yet tried dissolving it.

-R

 

[srs5694]

Attached is an EBAY for the chemical - 1/2 pound is way to much for me but I thought I would point you at it since it is in your part of the world.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Benzotriazole-B...562974301QQcategoryZ29983QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

This eBay seller's ID is jdphoto10, and they're in Canada, which makes me think they're probably Dead Link Removed. The eBay auction's starting price for 1/2 pound is $22.00, which is the same as the price on the JD Photochem Web site. They also sell in smaller quantities from their Web site, although the price per unit is higher. Their chemicals list page includes a note about shipping costs, FWIW.

Note that I've never bought from JD Photochem, but I've seen positive comments about them. Other common photographic chemical suppliers include Photographer's Formulary, Art Craft, Digital Truth, and Dead Link Removed (I suspect the last two are related). I haven't recently checked the benzotriazole prices at these places to see which one is currently the least expensive, although my prices spreadsheet lists 100g from Digital Truth at $14.00, which is $1.00 less than the price for the same amount from JD Photochem. (This is more expensive on a per-unit basis than the 1/2-pound price from JD Photochem, of course, but I entered the price for the smaller quantity because 1/2 pound is way too much for me.)

 

[Photo Engineer]

Other antifoggants inlcude phenyl mercapto tetrazole, nitro benzimidazole, and potassium iodide just to name a few.

There is a list, in order of activity in Haist, for example.

In color, it is possible to antifog each layer selectively based on the sentitivity of a given emulsion layer to a given antifoggant.

PE

 

[Gerald Koch]

Dead Link Removed sells benzotriazole 100 grams for $15 and 1 lb for $60. They also sell lots of other chemicals like the hard to find Dimezone-S.